Moments Thereafter
by Grav
Summary: Daine was very well aware that, had the natural course been followed, she should not be in this situation for at least another two weeks.
1. Tale the First

AN: For Amy. Send help!

Spoilers: "The Immortals" and "The Lioness Quartet"

Disclaimer: Oh so not mine. But I love them anyway.

**Tale the First**

His one request of her was that she show him Snowsdale. She speaks of it infrequently, but she knows he hears her when she dreams of it. She has never been back and he whispers to her of riding down the dirt paved streets under the colours of Tortall and beside a black-robed Mage. She knows he is only trying to make her laugh, but when he catches her tears, she lets him pull her close and he whispers instead of how they should make the journey.

Cloud is old now, and it is all she can do to leave her friend behind. They will travel another way, one where Cloud cannot follow, but it still feels a bit like betrayal. Cloud tells her it is silly, and she knows it is, but she leaves Stefan with extra sugar and oats when she leaves.

They travel during the day, a pair of hawks racing towards the north. Passing birds remark at their determined path, and it is several hours before she can stop her talons from twitching every time she sees a rodent crawl along the ground. He remains himself in birdshape while she becomes the bird, but from how he describes it, she knows he understands.

Sometimes at night she changes back after he does and forgets to include her clothing. She feels she will never tire of the way his eyes widen and his face softens before he reddens and turns away. This power is new to her, and something she is still unsure of, but she does know she likes it. When he turns back to her with the hunter's look in his eyes and comes closer, she knows that he does too.

No one notices the pair of hawks that come wheeling in above the town and roost above the smithy. She points out the men that tried to kill her and the women that came to her mother for aid when they were with child. The animals begin to gather and neither of them really notices until the smith himself comes out to shoo them away. She says hello to her old friends, surprised that any of them remember, and they tell her they wondered when she would give up being a two-legger. Explaining that she hasn't entirely is futile, but she thanks them and bids them well.

Snowsdale is unchanged and unchanging. No new house was put up where Sarra's once stood, and the ruins are more overgrown every year. In the place where the kitchen used to be, there is a shrine and she knows it is for the Green Lady. The marmot that comes out of the forest explains that the women come here even though the men don't like to know about it. She thinks that would have made her mother laugh.

She cannot face the graves at first, but he takes her hand and she finds herself telling him about each of them, one by one, until the tears make it impossible for her to speak any more. When she regains control, he tells her that he has seen all he wanted to, but she smiles and tells him there is one more thing he needs to see.

The mountains above her mother's house and shrine are never free of snow, even in the summer. Their whiteness would be blinding to human eyes, and even as a hawk, she cannot look at them for very long. The birds told her of this place long ago, but this is the first time she has ever been able to reach it.

The sun hits the snow below and is reflected. He starts to explain why this happens, but she tells him to be silent, or he will miss it. This needs no explanation; it simply will be. She catches the first current ahead of him and rockets into the air. Laughing, he finds his own and follows her. The rise together, circling in the brightest light either have ever seen. Here, all Magic draws together and the colours of the world are everywhere. He can see her world and she can see his and finally, there is absolute understanding.

As the air grows thin, she hears the Goddess sing.

**fin**

gravitynotincluded, May 6 2006


	2. Tale the Second

AN: And some more! There are a few more to be written and they are in nothing like chronological order, just so you know.

**Tale the Second**

Daine was very well aware that, had the natural course been followed, she should not be in this situation for at least another two weeks. Wind, the second pony she had ever owned, informed her plainly that Nature sometimes took things into Her own hands, as had happened when Cloud birthed Wind herself. Daine acknowledged the point, and asked if Wind would please go and get someone to help her. Preferably, someone with hands.

Wind tossed her mane and informed her friend that help was already on the way. Did she think that the daughter of the Green Lady would go through this alone? Daine leaned hard against a tree and let loose a string of words that no lady of her age should have used. Daine had, however, spent a great deal of time in some very odd company, and even the most high born of her acquaintances had interesting modes of speech.

A pelican swooped down from the sky and landed very ungracefully in the clearing. Daine was surprised to see him as they were quite a ways from shore. The bird opened his engorged beak to reveal that it was full of water. Daine stared at him perplexedly, but he didn't say anything.

"My bill is not large enough." Broad Foot appeared at her side. "I called upon a friend for aid."

"You do know that it's to be boiled, right?" Daine asked. "How exactly are you planning to do that?"

"Hush, Kit." The Badger nudged her to her feet and then pushed her into waking forward. "Your mother has given us extensive advice, and a fair few threats. Walk for a bit and leave the rest to us."

Wind came to stand beside her and Daine leaned hard upon her mare when the pains came again. I am sorry, friend, she thought. This should be happening far away from here. Wind nipped her gently and walked forward so that Daine could continue pacing.

The branches of the trees began to weigh down as the birds landed. Owls and eagles and jays and robins and sparrows and many others crowded in around the clearing. They seemed not to care that it was not their usual habitat nor their usual time of day nor even that some preyed upon the others.

The birds grudgingly made way for the squirrels, though most of the latter chose to climb down the trees and sit in the grass beside the marmots, chipmunks, foxes, mice and even a large bear. Prey and predator gathered together to wait.

Daine was not paying attention to anything save the mare and the Badger, but she was vaguely aware that all the spectators should have made her nervous. They were all completely silent, and they all watched her, but somehow it did not feel intrusive. It felt like family.

Family, Daine thought with something approaching anguish as she doubled over and gripped her mare's mane tightly in her hands. He should be here.

He will be, Wind soothed her.

Daine saw a flicker in the trees and looked past the ring of animals. Standing in a glade a few metres outside the circle were two impossibly large wolves. She knew them from earlier in her life, but this time, she could sense the presence of all wolves in them. Two more forms flickered into view and millions more presences came with them. All around her, she could feel the wild gods and all of their subjects join the animals that were already close to her.

With a supreme effort, she staggered back to the Badger and collapsed at the bas of the tree again.

"It's time, Kit," He told her. He reached out a paw and touched the totem that hung, as always, about her neck.

She could not have given a description of what followed, save that it was beyond anything she had ever encountered before. The water from the pelican's beak somehow managed to be warm or cool depending on where the Badger and his mate, whom Daine had never met but who somehow seemed exceptionally familiar, applied it. She remembered crying out for him and for her mother, and she remembered feeling the presence of friends she had not spoken to in years. Brokefang was there, and Quickmunch, and Scamp and once, though foggy from the pain, Daine swore she heard her Cloud.

When Numair finally broke into the clearing, he could hardly hear his daughter's cry for all the animals that had assembled to celebrate her birth.

------

**fin**

gravitynotincluded, May 10 2006.


End file.
